This latest excursion was saddled with very high expectations as the previous year's outing was slightly disappointing. much of the complaints were centered on the unpleasant weather. And another big factor for the excitiment was the venue: Grande Island resort in the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. The thought of spending a day in a small piece of land surrounded by the sea on a summer day conjures visions of prepubescent fantasies of the Blue Lagoon
-variety, to swimming to your heart's delight under the blazing sun.I wish I could say something witty about how the monumental disappointment of the employees threatened to bring the whole island upside down but whatever sense of humor I have left is already spent from trying not to give in to anger and just laugh at our miserable condition. anger takes too much energy and I couldn't afford to be exhausted at that time. Ironically, the purpose of the trip was to get rid of work-induced stress, But that's exactly what most of us got. It was so bad that I actually looked forward for work the coming Monday. Working never seemed so alluring and relaxing compared to that ordeal. I wonder if it was a company ploy so employees would appreciate their work more.
I had to wake up at 3 am because the departure time from Ortigas was 5 am. We left at 630 anyway. But that happens all the time. So I didn't have a problem with that. When we arrived at the island it was already raining and the wind is already picking up speed. So the upper management segregated us in different pavilions because the rooms, they said, were not ready yet. they expected us to check in at 2pm so we had to wait until they said we can go in.
I knew i should have gotten handfuls of those in-bus snacks and saved them for emergency purposes in case some catastrophe involving the food service in the island happens. poor mr. naive that I am, expected to eat lunch upon arrival. Up until lunch was served, some guys and I were still looking around the pavilion for hidden cameras as we were very sure we're being shot by Wow Mali! or some other TV show specializing on practical jokes. We were convinced this was some sort of a sick joke. It was funny alright; we were that close to eating the entire resort staff from sheer starvation.
We couldn't even drink the booze we brought along because of some stupid house rule I didn't bother to know for fear i might pick a fight with an island staff. And a brawl involving a big plate of lechon was averted; a guy almost got smacked while i was oblivious of the commotion belting out a new wave tune in the videoke. And that was about the only saving grace form the entire outing-something we could've had just by crossing the steet right across the office.
